


Chemical Bonding

by gaytriforce



Category: Voltron Legendary Defender
Genre: Coffee, College AU, Cooking, Getting Together, Keysmashing, M/M, chemisty class because it’s a random subject and I know nothing about college classes, gremlin pidge, hunk & Pidge being buddies, klance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-18 16:35:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21930454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gaytriforce/pseuds/gaytriforce
Summary: I hope you liked this! Please leave comments!
Relationships: Keith Kogane/Lance McClain
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22





	Chemical Bonding

Ah, fuck.

Lance woke up with his head pounding and his stomach screaming for the sweet release of death. He groaned when he saw his alarm blinking seven am. He’d have to get up now if he wanted to be on time for work. 

Mumbling angry, disjointed sentences about going clubbing during finals week, he pulled himself out of bed and stumbled into his small kitchen to the delicious smells of cooking.

“Morning, partier. There’s bacon in the pan on the back burner and the first pancake is almost ready to flip.” Lance silently thanked God for his roommate. “Hunk, have I ever told you how much I love and appreciate you?” 

The green and brown lump that was sitting at the seat next to Lance moved. “Akswjhak!” Lance cried out in fake dismay. “Aaahh! It moves! Wait, did you just keysmash with your mouth?” Pidge growled and went back into her cave of blankets, earbuds in. 

“Somebody’s in a mood. Here, Lance.” Lance thanked God the second time that morning when a plate of steaming food was set in front of him. He had just picked up his fork and knife when his phone buzzed. “God, what?” Lance picked up his phone and absentmindedly read the text.

mullet the bullet: um

“Pidge, what did you do in the group chat?” She lifted her head again. “What?” “You know, Keith’s texting.” She lifted her phone and checked it. “Weird. I didn’t get anything. Now leave me alone.” 

“Hunk? Why’s Keith texting?” Hunk put down his spatula and picked up his own phone. “What are you talking about? He must I’ve just texted you.” Lance looked at it again, confused. “But he never just texts me-“ He was cut off by another one coming in.

mullet the bullet: why??? what the fuck man  
Sharpshooter: What do you mean?  
mullet the bullet: are you drunk???  
Sharpshooter: I definitely was last night, haha.  
mullet the bullet: if by last night, you mean really early this morning, you’d better check our text history

Lance was bewildered. What did he do? Nervously, he scrolled up, and-

“FUCK! WHAT THE FUCK! OH SHIT!” Lance wailed and threw his phone onto the table. Hunk and Pidge both looked up from their activities and shared a confused glance. “Lance, why are you wailing like a goat? What went up your ass and died?” Pidge said. Lance only continues screaming in distress and pointing at his phone. Hunk move to pick it up.

“NO! Don’t look at it!!!” Pidge and Hunk shared another glance. “Dipshit, could you kindly tell us what the fuck you’re screaming about?” 

“I accidentally sent Keith a dick pic!”

Pidge and Hunk had the good graces to wait exactly one second before bursting out in unanimous laughter. 

“Guys! Shut up!” Lance whined, still embarrassed. “I was wasted. Allura was post-breakup drinking and I could hardly keep up. I thought we were gonna hook up or something, but she was super upset and obviously I wasn’t gonna try.” 

Hunk and Pidge kept snickering while Lance struggled to form a reply. The only thing he could think of saying was “wrong person lol” but then Keith would think he meant to send it to someone. 

“Dude, just tell him you were super drunk. He’ll probably just brood and be awkward for a week before you do some other stupid shit that gets you laughed at.” Pidge’s sage wisdom did little to calm Lance, however.

“No, I can’t. We’re partners for the final chem project and he made me promise not to go out so I could stay in and work on it. Pidge! I can’t be on the receiving end of one of those disappointed Keith looks!” Lance panicked, and in said panic, came up with a quick excuse.

Sharpshooter: Lol sorry! I was super sick and high on crazy fever meds. Must’ve looked up some weird internet shit and sent it while I was trying to research for the project.

mullet the bullet: lance   
mullet the bullet: there’s literally a mirror in the picture with your reflection in it

“FUCK! PIDGE!” Lance screamed again. “What dumb shit did you do to try and fix it that didn’t work?” She asked, amused. “Apparently, in this graphic picture, there’s a reflection of me. My face. Solid proof that I lied to him about it. And now he’s gonna think I’m into him, which I am strictly not, even though I’m-“

“A raging bisexual. We know. Now, just tell him what happened, power through the disappointed look, and stay up tonight to finish your project to make it up to him.” Hunk advised, blowing on a cup of coffee. 

Lance groaned. “I slept maybe two hours last night as it is. Any more deprivation and I’d literally keel over. Keith will probably still manage to pass with me dead.” Hunk gave a sympathetic look.

“Well, buck up, and pull your ass to school. Act like you’re not hungover and hope Keith forgets that you literally sent him nudes.” Pidge snickered at Hunk’s words. Lance shot them both a glare, but winced from the effort it took his head. 

“One nude! And it wasn’t even-“ Pidge cut him off. “Nope. No. Hell no. I don’t need to know about that shit. Bye! Have a good gay! I mean day!” Pidge folded her laptop up and snuck out of the room before Lance could reprimand her a second time.

“I’m out too. You can put the leftover pancakes away if you don’t eat them.” Hunk said as he put his spatula in the drying rack and untied his apron. “But what am I supposed to go about Keith??” Lance protested. “Just act like you were flirting with him. Now I really have to get to work.”

Lance stared at the table and thought hard. It wasn’t a half bad idea. Keith would probably just shrug him off and be unnecessarily cold and distant for a week before getting over it. 

Sharpshooter: So I guess you were examining it pretty closely huh?  
mullet the bullet: i have no idea what i’m supposed to say to that

Lance shook his head in confusion. He’d expected an angry string of curses or a harsh rebuff. He was about to ignore it to go shower when another notification chimed.

mullet the bullet: talk about it over coffee?

He shook his head again, this time in disbelief. What was Keith on about? He must mean the project they still had to finish.

Sharpshooter: Sure. How’s 9?  
mullet the bullet: i’ll be there :)

A blush rose to Lance’s cheeks. What did that smiley face mean? Why did he care? He shook out the last of his weird thoughts and got up to shower, his previously highly anticipated food left to grow cold on his plate.

At the Starbucks they commonly met at to work on their project, if working was defined by Lance vibing to Beyoncé while Keith brooded, Lance walked through the door with weird nervous energy in his stomach that he chalked up to his hangover.

“Hey. I got you one of those ridiculously sweet sugar cube drinks you like so much.” Lance turned to see Keith smiling a small smile at him. “You bought me coffee? You didn’t have to do that.” What Lance was really surprised by was the fact that Keith remembered what he regularly got at Starbucks.

“‘Course. I figured you’d need something to help the hangover you’re definitely sporting. What happened?” Keith’s small smile went from genuine to smug at that moment as Lance’s dropped from his face. 

“Ugh. Don’t even get me started.” Lance groaned as he sat down, not noticing the absence of Keith’s laptop. “Please tell.”

“Allura’s dumbass boyfriend broke up with her. They’d been fighting for weeks, and he finally cut it off. If you ask me, it was definitely his fault. I saw all the screenshots, and he wasn’t listening to her at all!” Keith cut Lance off from his rant, amused. “How does this tie into you getting wasted?” Lance groaned again. “Just wait for it.”

“So. She was all beat up about it, and I was thinking maybe she’d want a revenge hookup, so I-“ “Wait a second. Her boyfriend of what, like a year breaks up with her and your first motivation is sex? Are you that horny?”

Lance blushed at that. “No!” He said, flustered. Keith smirked in a way Lance had never seen. “Based on the shit you sent me at three am, I’d guess otherwise.”

Lance’s heart quickened. He’d been around enough flirting, hell, done enough of it in life to recognize it even in someone as shy as Keith.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about! I was super drunk and I spammed like ten people a random nude at three am!”

Keith looked almost... disappointed? “Wait, so you didn’t mean to send it to me?” Lance blinked. It was a lie, he’d only sent it to Keith, but he didn’t know what his drunk self was thinking. Or his current self.

In his best of thinking, Keith stood up. “I’ve gotta go, actually. See you in chem.” He said, voice hard. “Wait, Keith-“ Lance said, confused. “Yeah?” He turned around. “I... we didn’t get any work done.” Keith turned again. “We can finish it digitally. I’ll share it with you. Bye.”

He left Lance holding an untouched drink for the second time that day, confused, and red in the face.

He didn’t consider following him out until later. In that moment, Lance just sat there, thinking and not talking, which was very rare for him. He realized that Keith never asked him to come work, he asked him to come talk. He hadn’t brought his laptop.

Everything that had apparently been immediately seen by Keith slowly trickled into Lance’s brain. Keith had actually looked at the picture long enough to notice Lance’s reflection in it. That thought alone made a blush rise to his cheeks.

Everything he thought of in that half hour at Starbucks made him come to one conclusion. He needed to find Keith.

Lance’s ten impatient knocks at Keith’s partner door were met with a frustrated and very shirtless Shiro opening the door. This normally would’ve prompted some sort of flirtatious response from Lance, but he currently had other things on his mind.

“Lance? What are you doing here?” Lance was taken aback. “Shiro? You live here? Is this some sort of relationship thing?” A disgusted look passed over his face. “Ew, what the fuck? I’m a million years older and essentially his brother. Now, for you, that might be a different situation. Why are you here, Lance?”

For the thousandth time that day, he turned red. “Hopefully my luscious caramel skin covered up that heavy blush. Haha. Ha. No, I’m looking for Keith. Is he here?” He said, craning his neck.

Shiro raised an eyebrow. “No, he ran off to supposedly meet you. Looking weirdly happy for Keith. What did you do to him?” Lance squirmed, feeling like he was being interrogated by a parent.

“We were just talking, and he got mad and ran off out of nowhere.” Shiro thought for a second. “Come in. Let me put a shirt on.”

“So, let me get this straight. Or, gay, haha.” Lance patiently waited for Shiro to finish laughing at his own dad joke so he could make sure he knew the story correctly. 

“You, drunk, sent Keith a nude. He seemed to kinda be into it, but your oblivious ass didn’t notice until you lied about something and unintentionally rebuffed him and he got mad.”

Lance gulped. “Yeah, that’s pretty much it. You really think he’s into me, though?” He asked, biting his lip. Shiro smiled. “Clearly. And even though you’ve only been thinking about this for like, two hours, I think you might feel the same way.”

Lance laughed nervously. “It’s all really fast, but I’m one for flirting with anyone and everyone under the sun.” Shiro frowned. “Don’t do that. If you approach your feelings for him by acting like a douche, he’ll think he was right to walk away. You have to be honest.”

He nodded slowly. “You’re probably right. I should talk to him. What time is it?” Shiro looked at his dad watch. “11:11. Haha! Make a wish!” But Lance wasn’t paying attention. “11:11?? Shit! Chem started at 11! Fuck! Keith’s gonna think I’m avoiding him!” 

Shiro held his hands out. “Hold on! I can give you a ride. The building’s like five minutes away. I wanna be there when you guys have a gay makeout so I can cheer.” Lance nodded quickly and started to open the door. “Great, thanks. Now let’s go!”

Lance ran up the five flights of stairs to get to the classroom. By the time he got to the room, he was sweaty and breathing hard. It made him realize how much he needed to get into shape. But that thought was quickly pushed out of his mind when he saw Keith, at their table, alone, headphones in.

“Keith Fucking Kogane!” Every head in the small room turned up, including Keith’s. His resting bitch face turned to confusion and embarrassment as his pale cheeks turned red. 

“I can’t get you out of my brain and it’s been like an hour. I don’t want to know what days or weeks of this are like. Will you go on a date with me?”

Keith stared at him for a solid ten seconds before dropping his head into his hands and laugh-groaning deeply. “Yes. Yes, Lance, I’ll go on a date with you.” A few people wolf whistled, and many clapped, but the only thing either of them were focused on was each other.

Lance’s heart was still beating fast from running, and his body was still covered in a sheen of sweat, but both probably wouldn’t have stuck around if it hadn’t been for what he did next. Lance ran to Keith and picked him up out of his chair by the waist.

Keith yelped in surprise, but Lance shut him up by letting their lips meet, softly at first, and then more passionately. Lance felt his hands burning on Keith’s slim waist, and he slid one up to his face and gently cupped his cheek.

“Mr. Kogane! Mr. McClain!” They both ripped their faces apart and froze, looking at the face of their stern professor. “Endearing as this is, I’m going to have to ask you to take this out of my classroom. Now, please.” 

Guiltily, Lance helped Keith pick up his stuff so they could leave. The same few people wolf whistled as they started to walk. Casually, Lance took Keith’s hand, and they walked side by side and hand in hand out the door.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked this! Please leave comments!


End file.
